In Jesus' Arms

Some people tense at the thought of getting on an airplane or of encountering a spider or of giving a speech. One of the hardest things for me to experience is handing my baby to a nurse so he can be taken into an operating room. My second child had four surgeries between ten and twenty months of age. Some things become easier to handle the second, third or fourth time, but that is not true for me when it comes to my children going under anesthesia. I have been under anesthesia more than twenty times in my life, and I know from experience that things can unexpectedly really go wrong. My sixteen month old is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow in Philadelphia. Because all five of us are sick, no one else can watch my other two children. My husband will stay home with them, and I will be making the six hour round trip drive to the hospital with Oliver. We will likely be at the hospital for about eight hours. The time that passes while he is in the operating room will be the hardest for me. I am going to picture him resting in Jesus' arms, as a way of reminding myself that God is in control. As parents we take many precautions to keep our children safe, but in the end we can never guarantee their safety, for some things are out of our control. If you think of Oliver tomorrow, I would greatly appreciate your prayers for a successful, uneventful surgery. The surgeon will decide during the surgery whether the urological repair can be done in one surgery or if Oliver will need to have a second surgery in six months. I am praying that if it is the Lord's will, he will not need a second surgery.